Get Your Music Noticed pt. 1 @therealHNF

Pt. 1 of 10 on our series of effective strategies to get your music noticed courtesy of DiscMakers.com

1. The Standing-Out Strategy

The first thing that jumps to mind for most musicians when they think promotion is to get their album reviewed by a music publication and played on the radio.

You don’t have to start there. Publications and media that cater solely to music are probably the hardest place to get your music noticed. Plus, they won’t write about you or play your music until there’s something interesting to find when they do a search on your name – which is the first thing they’ll do.

The competition for attention in music publications and sites is overwhelming. For instance, National Public Radio’s “All Songs Considered” receives 200 to 300 CDs a week. Out of that, only eight get featured – and those are sandwiched in between other songs, and played just once. The same is true with music reviews. Although they are good for getting quotes for your press kit, it probably won’t get you many new fans, since it’s just one music review in a pile of music reviews.

Instead of focusing on music publications and media, think in terms of audiences. Put your music where it will stand out from the crowd. Consider one of the biggest sellers in the early days of CD Baby: an album about sailing. Instead of following the crowd and sending the album to a music magazine, the band instead cleverly sent their album to a sailing magazine.

The sailing magazine, which wasn’t used to receiving music, much less an entire album dedicated to exactly what the magazine was about, ended up reviewing the CD. The band’s CD didn’t have to compete against stacks and stacks of other CDs to get noticed. And because the magazine had a large audience and the CD got a great review, sales shot through the roof.

The great thing about the standing-out strategy is there is room for everyone. While your music has a style or genre, just targeting the people that like that kind of music represents only one, highly competitive channel for your music. By putting your music where there usually isn’t any, you can get noticed.